Whatever happens tomorrow, you must promise me one thing. You will stay who you are, not a perfect soldier, but a goodman.

You've been asleep, Cap. For almost 70 years. … You gonna be okay?

General Patton has said that wars are fought with weapons, but they are won by men. We are going to win this war because we have the best men. And because they are going to get better. Much better. The Strategic Scientific Reserve is an Allied effort made up of the best minds in the free world. Our goal is to create the best army in history. But every army starts with one man. At the end of this week, we will choose that man. He will be the first in a new breed of super-soldier. And they will personally escort Adolf Hitler to the gates of Hell.

[Schmidt stands before his army] Tomorrow, HYDRA will stand master of the world, borne to victory on the wings of the Valkyrie. Our enemies' weapons will be powerless against us. If they shoot down one plane, hundreds more will rain fire upon them! If they cut off one head, two more shall take its place. Hail HYDRA.

No matter what lies Erskine told you, you see, I was his greatest success!

You are deluded, Captain. You pretend to be a simple soldier, but in reality you are just afraid to admit that we have left humanity behind! Unlike you, I embrace it proudly. Without fear!

Abraham Erskine: I suppose that is the only question that matters. [Displaying a bottle of schnapps] This is from Augsburg, my city. So many people forget that the first country the Nazis invaded was their own. You know, after the last war, my people struggled. they felt weak...they felt small. And then Hitler comes along with the marching, and the big show, and the flags, and the, and the... and he hears of me, and my work, and he finds me, and he says "You. You will make us strong." Well, I am not interested. So he sends the head of Hydra, his research division, a brilliant scientist by the name of Johann Schmidt. Now Schmidt is a member of the inner circle and he is ambitious. He and Hitler share a passion for occult power and Teutonic myth. Hitler uses his fantasies to inspire his followers. But for Schmidt, it is not fantasy. For him, it is real. He has become convinced there is a great power hidden in the earth, left here by the gods, waiting to be seized by a superior man. So when he hears about my formula and what it can do, he cannot resist. Schmidt must become that superior man.

Rogers: Did it make him stronger?

Erskine: Yeah, but... there were other effects. The serum was not ready. But more important, the man. The serum amplifies everything inside, so good becomes great; bad becomes worse. This is why you were chosen. Because the strong man who has known power all his life, may lose respect for that power, but a weak man knows the value of strength, and knows...compassion.

Rogers: Thanks. I think.

Erskine: [Gesturing toward the schnapps] Get it, get it. Whatever happens tomorrow, you must promise me one thing. You will stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier, but a goodman.

Rogers: To the little guys.

Erskine: [just realising the schnapps could sabotage the test] No no, wait wait. What Am I doing? No, You have procedure tomorrow. No fluids.

Rogers: Okay, we'll drink it after.

Erskine: [pouring Steve's schnapps into his own glass] No, I don't have procedure tomorrow. Drink it after? Drink it now.

[After Steve catches Nazi spy Heinz Kruger]

Steve Rogers: Who the hell are you?

Heinz Kruger: The first of many. Cut off one head, [bites down a cyanide pill] two more shall take its place. Hail HYDRA! [Swallows pill and froths at the mouth before he dies]

[Three SS officers visit Schmidt's HYDRA facility, but he is slighted by their constant complaints]

SS Officer 1: The Führer is not accustomed to being ignored, Herr Schmidt. He funds your research because you promised him weapons.

SS Officer 2: You serve at his pleasure. He gave you this facility as a reward for your...injuries.

Johann Schmidt: A reward?! Call it what it is...exile! I no longer reflect his vision of Aryan perfection!

SS Officer 1: You think this is about appearances? Your HYDRA division has failed to produce so much as a rifle in over a year, and we have learned through local intelligence you had mounted a full-scale incursion into Norway!

SS Officer 2: The Führer feels- how does he put it?- the Red Skull has been indulged long enough!

Johann Schmidt: Gentlemen, you have come to see the results of our work. Let me show you. [shows them to his lab] Hitler speaks of a Thousand-Year Reich, but he cannot feed his armies for a month. His troops spill their blood across every field in Europe, but still he is no closer to achieving his goals. [pulls sheet off Tesseract-powered laser cannon]

SS Officer 1: And I suppose you still aim to win this war through magic?

Schmidt: Science. But I understand your confusion. Great power has always baffled primitive men. HYDRA is assembling an arsenal to destroy my enemies in one stroke, wherever they are, regardless of how many forces they possess, all in a matter of hours.

SS Officer 2: Your enemies?

Schmidt: My weapons contain enough destructive power to decimate every hostile capital on Earth. Quite simply, gentlemen, I have harnessed the power of the gods.

SS Officer 2: Thank you, Schmidt.

Schmidt: For what?

SS Officer 2: For making it clear how obviously mad you are.

SS Officer 3: [studies a map of all European capitals to be targeted, and sees one particular place] Berlin is on this map!

Schmidt: So it is. [aims cannon at the SS officers]

SS Officer 3: You will be punished for your insolence! You will be brought before the Fūhrer himself! [Schmidt kills him and Officer 2]

Phillips: [to Peggy] You and I are gonna have a conversation later that you won't enjoy.

Rogers: Please tell me if he's alive, sir. B-A-R-

Phillips: I can spell. I have signed more of these condolence letters today than I would care to count. But the name does sound familiar. I'm sorry.

Rogers: What about the others? Are you planning a rescue mission?

Phillips: Yes, it's called "winning the war."

Rogers: But if you know where they are, why not at least...

Phillips: They're 30 miles behind the lines through some of the most heavily fortified territory in Europe. We'd lose more men than we'd save. But I don't expect you to understand that because you're a chorus girl.

Red Skull: You could have the power of the gods! Yet you wear a flag on your chest and think you fight a battle of nations! I have seen the future, Captain! There are no flags!

Captain America: Not my future!

[Steve takes control of the Red Skull's plane and peaks over the radio]

Steve Rogers: Come in. This is Captain Rogers. Do you read me?

Jim Morita: Captain Rogers, what is your...[Peggy interrupts]

Peggy Carter: Steve, is that you? Are you alright?

Rogers: Peggy, Schmidt's dead!

Carter: What about the plane?

Rogers: That's a little bit tougher to explain.

Carter: Give your coordinates. I'll find you a safe landing site.

Rogers: There's not gonna be a safe landing. But I can try and force it down.

Carter: I'll get Howard on the line. He'll know what to do.

Rogers: There's not enough time. This thing's moving too fast and it's heading for New York. I got to put her in the water.

Carter: Please, don't do this. We have time. We can work it out.

Rogers: Right now I'm in the middle of nowhere. If I wait any longer, a lot of people are gonna die. Peggy, this is my choice. [he puts his compass with her picture on one of the controls as he steers the ship down to the ice below] Peggy?

I was mildly familiar with the comic book, but I wasn’t a fan of the comic, which I sort of see as an advantage in a way, because it lets me be a little more objective about what works and what doesn’t. I mean I wasn’t familiar with it, but once I decided to do it, I read every Captain America comic that I could get and I sort of researched where he came from and where he started and the various iterations of him over the decades. I wanted the origin of the film to be based on a comic book, but I didn’t want to have it be in your face the way some of them are, you know?

Well the Marvel guys have a system that works really well and it’s the way that I wish the studios worked. They hire a filmmaker and they understand the film that the filmmaker wants to make and then they help them make it. If there is anything that does not fit into the Marvel Universe, they will say, “You are going slightly outside of the lines here.” In CAPTAIN AMERICA there wasn’t anything that they were uncomfortable with. It’s all based on the character of Steve Rogers and who this guy is. He’s this kid who is constantly rejected, he wants to fight for his country, nobody wants him… That’s the heart of the story. As long as you don’t mess with that template, you can pretty much do anything. They let me add stuff that was hugely expensive, but it related to the story and it helped tell the story. The whole thing with zip lining down to the train was not in the original script at all and that whole sequence just needed something to sort of give it an action beat to start it. There were all kinds of stuff like that. They let me do all kinds of things that were not in the script, were not probably in the budget, but they could also recognize that “Hey that is making the story cooler. Let’s do it.” It was really great. It was like a dream job in a way. They were very supportive.